…IGP orders massive manhunt for fleeing suspects
Police operatives have arrested a deadly criminal gang responsible for the kidnap and murder of a Catholic Seminarian, Nnadi Michael of the Catholic Good Shepherd Major Seminary at Gonin Gora, Kakau in Chikun LGA of Kaduna State.
Recall that, on January 9, 2020, the criminal gang stormed the Catholic Seminary and kidnapped four (4) seminarians, murdered one of them in cold blood and released the remaining three on 31st January, 2020, having obtained a ransom. The remains of the fourth Seminarian were found in a bush where abandoned.
The suspects: Tukur Usman, 37, father of 7, Shehu Bello, 40, father of 5 and Mustapha Mohammed, 30, father of 1, all of Igabi LGA of Kaduna State were arrested after several months of intensive and extensive intelligence-led operations by crack detectives of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT).
According to a statement issued on Sunday by the Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Frank Mba, discreet investigations so far revealed that the arrested suspects were part of a 19-man gang that also carried out the kidnap of Dr. Phillip Ataga’s wife and two daughters on January 24, 2020 at Juji Community in Chikun LGA of Kaduna State.
Mrs. Ataga was killed by the gang following her heroic resistance to the despicable and inhuman attempt by the leader of the gang to rape her. The suspects after killing her released the daughters and corpse of the slain woman to the family after collecting ransom.
Mba noted that further investigations revealed that the same criminal gang was responsible for the kidnap of six students and two teachers of Engravers College, Chikun LGA, Kaduna, from their school premises on October 3, 2019.
“The suspects, known to belong to a hybrid terrorist criminal network causing untold havoc in North-Central, Nigeria, have confessed to several other random operations along Abuja-Kaduna Expressway where they kidnapped, killed and robbed motorists, collecting ransom and valuables running into millions of naira”, he said.
The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Mohammed Adamu, according to Mba, while reiterating that the Force would remain unrelenting in ensuring that crimes across the country were reduced to the barest minimum, assured the nation that the Force would not rest until the other members of the gang also responsible for the above crimes, but currently on the run, were apprehended and brought to book.
Photo: Slain Catholic Seminarian, Michael Nnadi.
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